Vasquez speaks at swearing-in ceremony for a new class of Peace Corps volunteers in Mozambique

"I had the unexpected, serendipitous opportunity today to speak at the swearing-in ceremony of a new class of Peace Corps volunteers. Sixty-four newly trained volunteers will soon head out to their villages and towns in Mozambique to start providing English, science, and health instruction in secondary and technical schools. Like the volunteer that guided us yesterday in Caia, they will live among the locals and share their talents with rural communities." Former Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez is U.S. ambassador to U.N. food agencies based in Rome.

Ambassador Gaddi Vasquez, the eighth U.S. representative to the United Nations agencies in Rome, traveled to rural communities in Mozambique December 3-7, highlighting U.S. support for humanitarian and agricultural partnership programs in a USINFO travel blog.

Following is the transcript of the travel blog:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of International Information Programs USINFO Travel Blog Transcript

Media Tour to Mozambique

Guest: Gaddi Vasquez Date: December 3-7, 2007

[Excerpt]

Wrap-up – Friday, December 7, 2007

Rain fell all day as our Asian journalists worked on their stories, interviewing local NGO representatives and Muslim cultural leaders in town. Together with colleagues from Boys from the neighborhood in window of unfinished brick home for flood victims in Central Mozambique. the U.S. Embassy and the UN agencies, I held a press conference at which I shared with Mozambican journalists some of the same impressions that I have communicated to you through this blog. I told them that a former Congressman and friend of mine told me years ago that once you come to know Africa, you cannot help but fall in love with the continent and its people. I am humbled by their daily sacrifices.

I had the unexpected, serendipitous opportunity today to speak at the swearing-in ceremony of a new class of Peace Corps volunteers. Sixty-four newly trained volunteers will soon head out to their villages and towns in Mozambique to start providing English, science, and health instruction in secondary and technical schools. Like the volunteer that guided us yesterday in Caia, they will live among the locals and share their talents with rural communities.

From what I have witnessed and through the conversations I have had with development professionals in Mozambique, I am confident that there is ongoing strategic planning by WFP, FAO, and IFAD to increase their collective impact and efficiency. One UN official told me that the “multilateral donor coordination is as good here as I have come across it in the UN.” The UN agencies have used the multiple natural disasters that have stuck Mozambique this year to work through new joint responses and to combine efforts to help the national government respond to food security threats. As one, the UN is consulting with the national government on agriculture, health, nutrition, environmental, and economic issues and encouraging intra-governmental collaboration.

I leave Maputo tomorrow morning after a very enriching and educational journey through Mozambique. I am encouraged by the incentives created by U.S. investment in UN food and agricultural projects that I have visited and by the strong community ownership of these capacity building activities. The journalists and I will take with us a vivid picture of the African will to survive. Thank you for coming along for the virtual ride.

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Story Source: State Department

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mozambique; Directors - Vasquez; Figures; Directors; United Nations; Diplomacy

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